How do seeds grow?

Its the new year! now that the irregular holiday schedule is over and I am done with most of the preparatory work for the year, I will be out at the centers doing garden lessons on a regular basis. While it is still too cold to start planting, I'll be doing indoor garden related activities designed to help the kids understand the lifecycle of a plant and where food comes from. Here's a couple of the plans I have in store for January & February:

Make a garden journal- to reflect on what they learn through the year

Seed sprouting- to observe how a plant grows: what it looks like, how long it takes

Indoor planting herbs- observe more on how plants grow, what they need to thrive

Books- We just got some great new preschool appropriate garden books for the centers, that will help familiarize the kids with new fruits and vegetables as well as help them spell, count, and read! These big beautifully illustrated books will be great rainy day activities for the kids. These are the ones we will be using:

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z, by Lois Ehlert
From the Garden: A counting book about growing food, by Michael Dahl
Growing Vegetable Soup, by Lois Ehlert


At Silverton we've already done the sprouting activity and the kids have had a chance to reflect on it.
All that is needed for this activity is a ziploc bag, some seeds and some wet papertowels. I used leftover cover crop seeds and soaked them the night before to help with germination. The teachers and I helped the kids with this activity so some of the baggies are neater than others. As the seed sprouts the kids will get to observe what the roots look like and how long they take to grow. I figure this is a good activity to start off a new year of the program. I'll post more pictures as we take them

Lasagna mulching at Silverton

Silverton already had two big raised beds installed last year so we didn't need to install any there this time around. Yet there is so much space out there I wanted to expand the garden so we can grow as much as possible this year- Everyone is so excited and supportive about the garden program over there, we want it to be a productive year! Last year Jeremy had cleared out another area and built a couple mound-style raised beds, but these have become over grown with grass already making them the perfect candidate for the lasagna mulching activity with the kids. There are 5 classes at Silverton, I had each class lay down all their lasagna mulching material in a designated space. In addition to the two 4x20' beds on location each class will now have their own little garden bed this year to take ownership and be proud of. There're not much to look at now, but they will be!

New garden beds

While the kids were out on break the facilities folk and I were busy at work outside installing the new raised garden beds at several of our centers. Special thanks to John and Josh in Washington County (it was cold and raining when we built the beds in WA county) and Julio at Mulino for their help!!! We installed 5 beds in three days, in various sizes and shapes depending on the location, and then sheet mulched the beds to kill of the grass and build the soil. I am really proud- they look great!See below for pictures and more information of lasganga/sheet mulching... (Click on the pictures to see bigger versions)

New garden bed at Settlemeier, Marion County

Setting up the timbers at Settlemeier


Lasgana mulching- layering cardboard and coffee grinds


The finished bed at Settlemeier!

New garden beds at Mulino, Clackamas County

Lasagna Mulching at Mulino:
Step 1- laying down layers of cardboard
Step 2- layering a nitrogen source (in this case coffee grinds)


Step 3- Layering another carbon source, maple leaves


The finished beds at Mulino!

New garden beds- Washington County

John & Josh cutting up burlap to top the lasgana mulching at Cornelius


The finished garden Bed at Cornelius


Finished bed at Jose Pedro (the containers inside the beds are temporarily holding down the burlap- it was windy!)


Finished bed at Jose Pedro